Inside Lawrence Shankland's Hearts story: Loch Lomond, Jock the Jambo and other offers

However, it turns out Lawrence Shankland wasn't satisfied. It had just reached the hour mark on Saturday 10 May when a typically sumptuous curling ball in from the left from James Penrice was met by a trademark striker’s finish from Shankland who, at that point, looked to be further out than in when it came to his future at Tynecastle.

One of those involved in the passage of play that saw Hearts take a 2-0 lead against Motherwell has in fact since left. But not the one everyone was expecting. Penrice is the player who’s made the kind of move – to AEK Athens - that many imagined was in the pipeline for Shankland.

But circumstances – and managers – change. A wedding takes place. A newly betrothed explains that maybe it might be better to stay put. Children – Shankland and wife Nicole have two young girls - plead their case: what should they do with their Jock the Jambo teddies when their father is playing for a club with less fun merchandise? “They’ve got every teddy of Jock the Jambo from the club shop,” Shankland notes.

And perhaps, more than anything, he himself wasn’t sure if he was ready to accept that he’d already scored his last ever goal for Hearts.

“I don't know if I was all right with that, you know what I mean?” he says now. “I don't know if I'd miss that opportunity (to score more). Now that I've made the decision, I'm happy again, I'm looking forward to that. It's a great place to play. I've had loads of good memories from here as well, so hopefully we can go and make a few more."

Shankland: ‘Just keep it on’

Currently on 68 goals for Hearts, there’s more – presumably – to come from Shankland, perhaps even as soon as Saturday evening when he gets back into an old routine and leads the team out for their opening League Cup group match against Dunfermline. The legend continues. Perhaps onwards to 100 goals, a milestone reached by an elite group including John Robertson, Alex Young and Willie Bauld.

Shankland didn’t expect everything to fall back into place immediately. For example, when he came on as substitute in the closed doors game against Crawley Town last week, he was embarrassed to see Frankie Kent start tugging off the armband he had been wearing. “I'm not a fan of that to be honest,” he explains. “Just keep it on. It was only for 15 minutes, so somebody running over there desperate to give the armband... I'm not too caught up in it, it doesn't matter who had it on. It suited Frankie for the night, so I had to tell him."

It has, though, been confirmed by manager Derek McInnes that Shankland will remain skipper despite the length of time it took for him to commit again to the club. His response to being asked how big a factor was it in deciding to return is along the lines of well, why wouldn’t I still be captain? “Obviously, I know the role that I was in previously, so there's not too much changing there,” he says.

It was only two weeks ago that Shankland looked to have missed his deadline to get back to Hearts on their offer of a three-year contract. The club released the flight manifest ahead of the club’s trip to Spain for a pre-season training camp and who didn’t have a seat caused the biggest stir. “I think the club were probably fed up getting asked on social media about what was happening, so they probably just released that squad to kind of calm it down a bit for a couple of days,” he reflects.

So where was he at the time? "It was good, I was at Loch Lomond!” he smiles. “I was away for the weekend, it was lovely. But no, it was quite close at that point to be fair. There was a lot of conversations still to be had….But round about that time, I was kind of confident that it could get done. Albeit, there were still a few i's to dot and t's to cross, but it got done in the end."

Although McInnes had suggested he wanted to know either way by the time Hearts left for Spain, Shankland didn’t feel as though the squeeze was being put on him. He was simply exercising his right to consider all options, which, considering he turns 30 next month, he is entitled to do. But nothing among these offers, he can acknowledge now, left him saying, ‘wow!’

“I felt I just had to give myself time to weigh up what was there and see if there was an option that maybe sparked something in me and made me go, 'Oh, you know, I want to try that’," he says. "The things that came up didn't do that to be honest. Quite apart from the financial side, it never really ticked many boxes in terms of the family side and that was a big one for me.

“When you've got young kids, it’s important,” he adds. “Starting school, things like that. It's difficult times for them as well. You need to take all that into consideration. It’s not just a football decision, you need to make something that suits the family as well. And to be honest, from the off, my missus, I think, was quite keen for me to remain here and my kids, well, they're basically Hearts fans now! "That's all they've known for me," he adds. "They were keen for me to be here as well because they've got their pals in the players' lounge as well.” And most persuasively of all, it means various versions of Jock the Jambo can remain part of the family.